“If you want to be a good writer read books from authors that are better than you”.
So I’ve been reading some good books. Well…
I read “To Kill A Mockingbird”. I’m sorry, all of you folks that think that was a great book, I didn’t like it. And here’s a fair warning: There’s lots of spoilers ahead. So buckle up.
That book was nothing more than a vehicle to get from point A to point B. Point A being wanting to see Boo Radley. Point B being seeing Boo Radley. And the irony is the two people who wanted to see him most, Jem and Dill, didn’t. The one person who was ambivalent about it, Scout, did.
As for the “Trial of the Century”? That kind of trial has been going on for ages. Atticus surely proved that Mr. Robinson couldn’t have done the things he was accused of. But like he said, and he’s talking about a grown man, “A white jury will never put a black boy over a white man”. The only thing missing from it was the lynch mob. But that was taken care of when while in jail Mr. Robinson was shot trying to escape. By climbing over a fence. With a lame arm.
Now don’t get me wrong. I thought it was a good slice of Americana, coming of age story. It was well written, and the characters, no matter how briefly we meet them, came to life. The authors use of prose was clear and concise, and there was even some mystery, like how Atticus was so good with a rifle. In fact his past was something that held my interest for a while. There were unanswered questions about him, but I guess as it was written from Scout’s point of view these questions weren’t something she dwelt on at her young age.
But that wasn’t the point of the book. Jem and Dill wanted to see Boo Radley. They tried everything they could to do just that, and it all failed. The trial was a writer’s convenience to get to see him. The author created a chain of events that got Boo out of his home, to be seen by the one person who wasn’t all that interested in seeing him. And all it cost was a black man’s life.
I don’t want to get into the racial aspects of the book, except to say the white folks consider the black folks to be shifty, dirty, theiving people. Yet when you actually meet them they are the warmest, friendliest, and most humble people. More irony.
I do want to say that, as well written as it was, it wasn’t my cup of tea. Not because of the racial aspect. But because it only served one purpose, getting to actually meet and talk to Boo Radley. For that I give it two stars.
Arid Testimony 